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TOMORROW'S YESTERDAY 






Copyright, 1920 

By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

(incobpobated) 



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©CI.A570449 
JUN 24 1920 



A little rhyme 

To set the world in harmony 

With itself— 

A little elf 

To cast it spinning through the sea 

Of Time. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Marsh Dreams . 3 

The Passing of a Shadow 14 

Morning and Evening 17 

Before the Oracle 19 

Chaos 21 

Among Thieves 23 

Spirit of Ages 25 

Anton 27 

Sanctity 29 

Gold 30 

The Valley of the Shadow 31 

Dragon 33 

The Eternal 34 

Confession of Hope 36 

Atonement 38 

What is Thine Answer? 39 

Spring 42 

Disdain 43 

Dream and Love 44 

Foam of Deep and Cloud of Sky 46 

Woman 47 



Page 

In the Wilderness 50 

Redemption 51 

I Cannot Hide You 52 

Turn to My Arms 54 

I Sent Her Forth 56 

Unbind Thy Hair 58 

Good Bye 59 

The Last Morning 61 

Regret 62 

The Cry 63 

Scarlet Wife 64 

Consolation 65 

The Tale of the Grey Wolf 67 

The Return 74 

The Moon on the Palisades 78 

Song of a Suicide 80 

The Weeper 81 

At Dusk 83 

Evening 85 

The End of the Trail 86 

The Story of the Judge 88 

My Faith 92 

As I Pray (Two little drops of poison, etc.) . . . 94 

The Pestilence 95 

In a Glass of Red Wine ... 7 97 



TOMORROW'S YESTERDAY 



TOMORROW'S YESTERDAY 



MARSH DREAMS 

The moon was over the silver marsh 
And a flood of light on the grasses lay 
That like a sea from the distant surf 
In shadowy ripples across a bay 
Of unreality in the night 
Beckoned the brooding soul away. 

This is a story of self and self, 
With trial and judgment and love of life; 
No death too swift to eternal rest, 
The depth that fathoms the end of strife, 
When soul hath unto the soul confessed. 
[3] 



I 

I was alone in the wildwood and the fen, 

I was the child of the salt marsh and the tide, 

Grown so, nor born to the deal — nor death was mine 

Deep in the soft breast, deep in the silencing arms 

Of sand. I care not that your carrion eyed 

Me so, your stalwart keepers of the law, 

I am no beast to strike with beak or claw. 

Not I the reed-toothed viper of the glen 

To fang you low yet nearer to your heart 

Than whisp of steel: my passing heeds, not harms. 

Your own. Begone, and let me so depart 

Like to the foam white whispering in the brine. 

If I but lie, if I but hold the thread 
That twists across its own sad path and leaves 
No grain of truth to stand among the sheaves 
Of imaging, 
And if I sing 

Like some poor madman that I seem, of life 
Deep drawn and shadowed, then there is no wife 
Of mine that sleeps among the murdered dead. 

[4] 



II 

Love you the mist-swept moor 

And the dreaming sea? 

Love you the pale moonhght 

And the stars that Hnger 

Like a last note that whispers at the finger, 

Love you the desolate soHtude of life? 

Then you love me. 

Have I said desolate, night, 

When a god I am grown with the gust? 

Oh, drown the lie at my Hps 

And the sea will I take to my breast 

And the mist for a shroud! 

I have loved thee and scorned thee together, 

I have withered the wave at its crest, 

I have banished the moon with a cloud. 

When I loved I was strong with thy strength, 

In my scorn I was poorer than dust. 



[5] 



Ill 

If you convict or grant me withering pain 
Of life, you are but judges of the slain, 
Not me, I know myself. You cannot find 
One judgment other, for the shifting mind 
Is door and threshold to the soul. A glance 
Of love makes glade of desert circumstance, 
A kiss turns silver moonlight into wine, 
A sin is gift of heaven flung to hell. 
That reels and sUnks and feints and will not tell; 
Judge now if that be mine! 

And we are followers of the day, not night. 
Not night beneath whose awesome breast I pitch 
My tent; between whose firefly expanse 
And death lives but the firefly. I knew 
The wild cloud and the rain; I felt the switch 
Of summer torrent on my cheek; I smote 
A kiss into Hfe and still it would not float 
Far from the hps that banished it to flight. 
Oh, thought of life is dross of life and all 
[6] 



Dies like a senseless flower in the dew; 

I cannot rise so high I shall not fall 

Nor dream to climb eternity with a glance. 

IV 

I will breathe me a scarlet fire into the dust, 
I will strew a measure of pearls upon the flame 
And let the smoke rise wreathing to the stars! 
Oh, burn thy time and neither wait nor trust 
If thou hast taken life and wilt no blame, 
Take thou thine own and leave no coward trace 
To come when thou art gone and haunt the place. 

He was a man of strength, to cast the stone 
Pebblewise out above the surf until 
The eye was lost upon the wave. Alone 
Befriended of the cataract of men 
Who seek to balance wisdom on the tip 
Of the seagull's wing or splurge it from the pen 
He did not ponder with the fool, nor shp 
Into the calyx of the snow-white death. 
[7] 



He saw the torrent rushing to the main, 
He saw the sun that drew it into rain, 
The wind that flung it as a kiss is flung, 
The earth that held it deep its veins among. 
And laughed, for to the bosom whence it sprung 
Turned it forever back again. 

V 

Lamp of the dark night. 

Lamp of love, 

In her eyes I saw the gleaming, 

Moon of the whippoorwill. 

Moon of the sea. 

In my realm of far above 

On thy face is dreaming 

Smile to comfort me? 

Leave thy waters, leave thy forests, 
Let the vision of thy face 
Dance among the little planets 
In the lonehness of space. 
[8] 



In my soul I wish, I want thee, 
All the majesty and peace, 
Let my pain that cannot haunt thee 
Fall asunder, writhe and cease. 

VI 

He was the cunning sort, that gathered men 
To feed his intellect upon, in den 
Of feathery silk, a spider-weaver, yet 
Perverse and hideous to his kind. Forget 
The haggard, beaten thing I am and see 
The parchment of forbidden years with me. 
I am so far from Time I know not whence 
Dancing the flight of perfidy I came: 
I nourish soul and body with a flame 
And deem it recompense. 

We walked the melody of space together. 
We drew a life from death and bade it tether 
Vein to the vein of dust, and voice and pulse 
To make the living still, the dead convulse, 
And when experiment demanded pain 
[9] 



We laughed and charactered the house as vain, 
Draining desire, lest the flesh commit 
The soul to death's interminable length, 
And we, the strong men prostitute our strength 
For glance of reeUng wit. 

VII 
Oh, the house of my soul is a house of clay 
And the site is a shifting sand. 
Tomorrow the tide may come and all, 
Tomorrow, forever, my house may fall. 
But the sun is warm at the door today 
And I Hve as long as my house shall stand. 

Thrice did I pass my window love. 
And thrice did I see thee smile, 
For the wind was sweet 
And the soul was mad 
And the trees in a rhythmic sway the while 
Bade the disconsolate heart to beat. 
So I rose from the pansy bed at thy feet 
And leaned on thy breast and was glad. 
[10] 



VIII 

Oh, he left me his home and his garden and thee, 
And he left, at his gate, with a laugh; 
As yonder marsh hen mocks at the sea 
With a swoop and a shiver of ribaldry, 
He mocked as he killed what he gave to me 
And I swooned as he flung me the lifeless half. 

Oh, gather thy strength and lash thy steed 
For the quarry is over the mountains gone 
And call the countryside as you go 
For the hand of a friend is the heart of a foe. 
Nor tell of remorse till tomorrow nor heed 
The nauseate madness, and hasten on. 

IX 

Unleash the hounds of bitterness and regret, 
Fierce to the scented trail of nostril, let 
The blood-sown wind sweep them upon me, blow 
The eager breath and fangs as white as snow 
Here close to my throat, the burning eyes 

[11] 



Reflecting death in desire. Let me rise 
Unto the moon and sever will from truth. 
In swiftness they unto the endless chase 
As summer clouds that whisper into space 
And are gone. Then call it truth? 

I wish the moon at morn, the sun at eve, 
I wish the terror of the night to slay 
Itself and be its counterpart for the day, 
Laughing forever, and the hate to weave 
Its hissing strands into the garland love, 
The last to fascinate, and twine above 
My temples; Time dream to decay. 

X 

Had'st thou but waited when the tide was flood. 
There in the deep white offering of the moon, 
Had'st thou not flung a spray across the boat 
And drowned the passage of our souls too soon. 
There were no wanton stirring in the blood. 
Nor gleam of hatred on the sea afloat. 
[12] 



Reality is centered in the past, 

Tonight is dreaming what the day has done; 

Thy pride was Hke a bat above the mast, 

Unbanishable, evil, as the sun 

That lurks in the high heavens when the land is parched, 

Yet when I smote 'twas not on thee that fell 

The judgment scorned of paradise, that marched 

In a chain of bright red lightning o'er thy brow, 

'Twas here upon this breast that wanders now 

The long, interminable path to hell. 



[13] 



THE PASSING OF A SHADOW 

I know a nook in utmost solitude, 

Covered with moss; beneath a silver rock 

Flows forth the crystal silence of a spring. 

There in the sorrow of the eve I steal, 

Bathed in the moonlight; and the world, asleep. 

Knows not nor wonders. There is an art forgotten, 

Mystic, I breathe the spirit of the earth. 

"Thou art thyself, yet of the whole a part, 
Life were as nothing if thou wert not here. 
Bearing like colunm through the turbid night, 
Sturdy, the structure of Humanity. " 

Hours and hours, or if time be long, 
Ages and ages I have waited there. 
Knowing the voice would come again, and now: 
[14] 



"Men, in the great world dwelling, myriads; men 
Rounding the whole into a mighty mass 
And shapeful, over the surface of the earth; 
Tillers of fertile plains, of swaying leas; 
Herdsmen where stern-eyed mountains frown upon 
The golden bend of the seashore! Everywhere 
Incarnate soul, innumerable lives. 
Incarnate soul, 3^et all no more than one. 



Ye are interpreters of thy mother, child, 

Formed but to sing with the sea, and with the wind 

To run and tussle, shriek and laugh and be still : 



As sun loves planet, so ye love, so bless, 
Then pass to everlasting destiny. 



But play with thy delicate fingers on the reed, 
Then cast the reed away: the sound is gone, 
The music Ungers yet — so lingers life. " 
[15] 



And then the ghostliness of the screech-owl breaks 

The ecstasy of that unknown, Hpless cry, 

With curious quavering, trembling through the dark. 

But as the dawn awakens, then, at last, 

Before the splendor of a day of hope: 

"Oh thou, with mind too small to understand, 
Lining through ages helpless and alone. 
Take to thy breast the love that is not flown. 
Mankind, thou art incomparably grand. 



[16] 



MORNING AND EVEN 

Morning is dust and even is ash, 

Only the day is the fire between, 

Only the white waves sweeping low. 

Only the eddying winds that blow 

Under the sunlight of heaven, are true, 

And the love that burns at my heart, and you. 

Springtime is faithless and winter responds 
As soulless stone to the infant touch. 
Give me the summer and drown the rest 
As a dross that only supports the best, 
And summer wine or a winter's night 
And a summer's glow in the anthracite. 

Birth is a passion and death is a pain: 
I wonder that seekers of wisdom go 
[17] 



To the entrance and exit, and borrow strife 
When they dwell in the very house of Ufe; 
When the wisdom of summer and love and day 
Is theirs, why will they throw it away? 



[18 



BEFORE THE ORACLE 

Intemperance shall not quarrel with the will 

But give it sway till rich be riper yet, 

For who would draw the clusters from the vine 

Until they yearned to sparkle into wine, 

To dance among the veins and sing, "Forget." 

The plain shall be the solace of the hill 
For him who climbs, but on the towering shelf 
He must not turn to contemplate the slope. 
He must not ask the wind to grant him hope 
Nor waste his labor pitying himself. 

The world will Uft the strong and crush the weak, 
The road of life is cluttered all its length 
With stoneless graves and tombs unwrit for shame, 
Nor shalt thou cry, ''I stumbled a<s I came," 
For in the frailest will is mightiest strength. 

[19] 



The dark will not inspire them that seek 
The day is but the masking of the eyes, 
Tonight depart, tomorrow is thy choice, 
Ask thou from Time the golden gift: a voice 
That fades into the sunken vale and dies. 



[20] 



CHAOS 

The truth is master of the lie, 
The fool is lost, the man is shaken, 
A breath of wind has crossed the sky 
To flame and burn, and merry waken 
Light is the deep lake and the stars, 
Or draw the pulsate heart of earth 
Closer and closer. 

The night must wane into the birth 
Of dawn, and death give way to dreaming, 
Thence into hfe, for dancing mirth 
That finds no rest in sigh or seeming 
Strikes with a hissing bolt and mars 
The dream of the followers of dust 
Deeper and deeper. 

[21] 



Then rise and live, for rise ye must, 
Rise and rejoice for Time is driven 
Back to the kingdom of dewy lust, 
Death to the keeping of Death is given, 
And dark new flung from the breast of days 
Shatters to bits like an earthen vase. 
Broken forever. 



[22] 



AMONG THIEVES 

Open, open, ere the sunset slink 

Below the marshes, open unto me; 

Open, open, ere the nighthawk drink 

One silent draught from out the brackish pool, 

Ere mist in shrouding horror risen from the sea 

Envelop, open, open to the fool ! 

Hearken, hearken, hearken to the pledge 

In hollow echo sounding o'er the waste : 

Hearken, hearken; from each rugged ledge 

That sloping down slips out into the main 

It calls: nor wilder than my heart in trembling haste 

Beats out the reehng vision of my brain. 

Honor, honor, was it thus before 
To slay the best ye sought the strongest out? 

[23] 



Ere I was gone was bolt upon the door 

Or hate but hidden in your hearts away? 

Hell sets the whole world spinning in a fiendish rout, 

In yonder mist I die before the day. 



[24] 






SPIRIT OF AGES 

What is the government, what is the law, 
What is the strength that holds a people so? 
As one would strew the air with seeds 
And bid them grow 

So are we strewn across the night, in awe, 
Like swallows underneath the moon. 

Conscious of power, glad in a world's distress. 
Proud of the strength to crush, and brook no ill, 
A voice cries out in passioned note 
And wild to kill, 
''Long have I led and now I bid aggress! 
Ye sin that yet ye have not bled. " 

What is the government, what is the right, 
What is the strength that holds a people so? 
[25] 



Are we yet dreamers of the dark 
Who cannot know, 

Or shall we rise with all a hidden might 
And strike the mask from off our eyesi 



[26] 



ANTON 

Anton, sprung of the wolf-hound, 
Would a'wooing go, 
Fair or foul to win or slay, 
Fleeting love and fly away. 
Bore his dagger on departing 
But I took a bow. 

Anton, sprung of the wolf-hound. 
Slunk beyond the stream. 
Like a skulking beast he crept 
Where the forest lily slept. 
Bent above her half uncertain. 
Would not break her dream. 

Anton, sprung of the wolf-hound, 
Beat upon his brow, 

[27] 



stood a moment sad and still, 
Humbled passion to his will, 
Turned and fled into the forest, 
Faithful to his vow. 

Anton, sprung of the wolf-hound. 
Does not know the rest; 
Did not see her as she woke. 
Did not hear the name she spoke. 
Dreaming? Nay! there Hes adreaming 
Arrow in her breast. 



[28 



SANCTITY 

Evergreens and snow, 

Calm and a forest solitude. 

The hidden brooklets flow 

Under the shielding ice, and strange 

Pool witches softly blow 

Through dark weeds swaying to and fro, 

In restless change. 

Place thy lips to mine, 

Here in the wilderness of God, 

That like a golden wine 

Swift may the hidden current bear 

The fleeting heart's design: 

Deep under snowwhite brows divine 

His presence there. 

[29] 



GOLD 

Gold, gold, that giveth everything, 
A little grain within the eye a-gHstening, 
To set the blood aglow the ear a-Hstening, 
Gold, gold that giveth everything. 

Not as the wine to make men dance and sing, 
To tread the earth as cloud on misty wing, 
But in the helpless heart alone 
To make it grand or barren as thine own, 
Gold, gold that giveth everything. 

Not as the filmy soul to make men pray for, 
In weary pilgrimage to search the day for, 
Thine is a little strand the whole world compassing, 
A little rainbow strand to which they cUng, 
And when they have thee, lo, thy grace is flown. 
Gold, gold that giveth everything. 
[30] 



THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW 

Youth dreams and age regrets, 
Youth's dream is of a day- 
Unknown and of a hidden reckoning; 
Youth dreams and age regrets, 
And trembUng age regrets 
But of the past and lost youth beckoning. 

Youth gazes forward, age behind, 

Youth sees the rising of the golden sun 

Youth sees the day in all its splendor light; 

Youth gazes forward, age behind, 

And trembhng age behind 

As crimson sunset whispers of the night. 



[31] 



Youth fears, but age is strong, 

Youth's fear is of a Time 

That taketh all and giveth naught in stead; 

Youth fears, but age is strong, 

Yea, trembling age is strong 

And laughs — though on the morrow it be dead. 



[32] 



DRAGON 

I fear him where the long grass waves, 
I fear him in the limpid, silent pool; 
Where deep the sensuous shadows of the glen 
Enveil me, there the form I know 
Uprises at my feet. 

Dull eyes that fascinate and greet, 
A saffron throat whereon the sun may glow 
In vain, but for the life pulse now and then. 
I fear him, hear him, yet the fool 
Takes ever what he craves. 



[33 



THE ETERNAL 

1 

The long day comes 

After the dawn, 

And the murmur of drums 

Rolling and beating, hushed and repeating. 

2 
The white mist steals 
Over the land 
And a dark vulture wheels 
High in the graven clouds like a craven. 

3 
The death guns boom 
Into the light 
With a fiery doom 

Belched from each sweUing throat and repeUing. 
[34] 



4 

Thou, it is Thou 

Come with the day, 

Let a kiss on my brow 

Still the discerning life and the burning, 

5 

Take Thou the pain 

Out of mine eyes 

And the vision of slain 

Held in each greening flash and careening. 



[35] 



CONFESSION OF HOPE 

A stirring in my veins, 

The wind in the poplar trees, 

A whisper on my brow: 

As quivering prayer the thunderbolt restrains. 

As shore is impotent to the seas 

life sweeps me onward now. 

My cast is with the breath 
Of multitudes; with the waves 
My hope is; with the whole, 
With all this little world of worlds: who saith, 
'Seek him and him alone who saves 
Himself, " he hath no soul. 

And if I pledge this clay 
Unto the eternal night, 

[36] 



And if I wish for rest, 

Still is the burning of the summer's day 

To claim its mockery of light 

And me? And is it best? 

Up through the shadow loft 

Of murmuring pines and tall, 

Unto the stars my prayer 

Shall go, and though the winged cry be soft 

And unto earth again it fall 

Must it not find Thee there? 



[37] 



ATONEMENT 

I fear the quiet treachery of things, 
I steal away from over-£^olden day 
And in some somber cavern hide myself, 
Time moves, day goes, not I 
I cannot die. 

I watch the panther and the fluttering wings 
Of some wild-throated, pinioned bird of prey, 
I shrink at death, draw back, and hide myself, 
Like flows and ebbs, not I 
I cannot die. 

God gave the enormous harmony of light, 
Yet what is God and what am I to see 
Aught else but that I list and flee, 
Baring my breast and shrieking in the flight. 
Dead, dead, he lies, not I 
I will not die. 

[381 



WHAT IS THINE ANSWER? 

This is the land where the shadows move, 
Stealthily, softly, coming and going, 
This is the land w^here the cymbals crash. 
The quivering drums and the tramp of feet. 
The voice of thunder and serpent lash. 
Where all things opposite stumble and meet 
And steel springs up from the early sowing, 
Terror and love. 

Summer is lost and the fields are white. 
Life from the heather and plain is leading 
All that remains of her pillaged fold, 
Back from the frozen brook and the stealth 
Of the white-armed lover of death, the cold, 
The scorner that mocks at her hoarded wealth, 



[39 



The wolf that comes when lier breast is bleeding, 
Out of the night. 

This is the land of the ghstening throne, 
Gifted with life, and reviler of living, 
This is the temple of sunken hope. 
The candle-hung garden of dreamless sleep 
Where blind and visioned together grope. 
Where night-blown shadows their vigils keep 
Over the tomb of recalcitrant giving. 
Graven in stone. 

The white arm droops from the golden lute. 
The strings re-echo the burst of playing, 
A silence hangs on the ruddy lips 
Where dies the fountain of song at its source, 
But far through a shadowy vale there shps 
A river of pain in a turbulent course. 
Its waters red with the wine of slaying. 
Writhing and mute. 



[40 



Perhaps if the, dawn shall come again, 

Or night bind up her sable tresses, 

Closing her eyes, and faint away, 

Blown from the morning as dreams are blown, 

Flinging her heritage to the day 

Nor life remember the visions flown 

And blush to a crimson with new caresses. 

Has it been vain? 



[41] 



SPRING 

Bright robes and brightly flowing, 
Fair tresses, violet eyes, 
Soft dimples, coming, going 
Like wanton butterflies! 

Who cares that time is fleeting. 
Who weeps that all must fade; 
When mad the heart is beating 
Who loves and is afraid? 

Come closer, closer, tell me 
The secret of thy call; 
Down to thy lips compel me 
One moment, that is all. 



42 



DISDAIN 

Love is a mistress of the wine of night, 

For in the breeze no passion lives, the spray 

That flings a million harmonies to the wave 

Is free. 

And love is drowsy, sensuous, of the clay, 

The harbinger of birth, 

A listlessness, a lesion of the sense, 

A dream hallucination, to deprave 

Affinity of soul and earth. 

High in a flurry of golden fleece 
A wing dips out of the endless blue. 
And quivering down the morning sky, 
Loud and sweet and swift and true, 
I the courier of caprice 
Hark to the consonance of a cry: 
If love he scorned of beauty, love must die! 
[43] 



DREAM AND LOVE 

Tomorrow was the palace where I dwelt, 
Tomorrow was the temple of my dreams, 
Till I met you. 

I knew no morn of wakening but I felt 
The fancied murmur of far distant streams 
That fell into the blue. 

The spring spoke myriad tongues of coming life. 
Each sunamer came and fled into the past 
With all the rest. 

Each autumn, weary of the unequal strife, 
Hid her bright features in the winter's blast. 
Said I, "Tomorrow's best." 

But when I saw you smile, and felt your warm 
Sweet lips steal closer unto mine, away 
[44] 



The vision sped. 

You banished dreams in one great, withering storm 
Of truth: This is Tomorrow's Yesterday, 
Awake ere you be dead. 



[45] 



FOAM OF DEEP AND CLOUD OF SKY 

Foam of deep and cloud of sky, 

Lovely, sea-blown butterfly, 

Soft outspread and floating far 

Down the whisper of a blast, 

Flash of moons and murky things 

Fainting on thy velvet wings. 

Yet I tremble lest it be 

Our dear love that's blown to sea, Sweetheart. 



[46] 



WOMAN 

Wake softly, softly 

As the rose unfoldeth, 

Pale red bud and perfume breathing, 

Wake softly, softly; 

Earth no longer holdeth 

In her cup of emerald, wreathing 

Night, wake, awake. 

Rise gently, gently. 
O'er thy stirring bosom 
Velvet Hes the sunUght golden, 
Rise gently, gently. 
Blushing like a blossom 
By the virgin morn beholden, 
Gently rise, arise. 

[47] 



Sing lightly, lightly 

In the day's devotion, 

Free thy hair from binding sorrow, 

Sing lightly, lightly; 

With a fearless motion 

Fling it far into the morrow, 

Lightly sing, sing. 

Love, maiden, maiden, 

Life is like a flower. 

Let thine heart untutored teach thee; 

Love, maiden, maiden, 

In thy golden hour 

And no sulHed Hps shall reach thee, 

Maiden, love love. 

Prate, nodding, nodding, 

In the day's decHning 

Life must wear a dark complexion, 

Prate, nodding, nodding; 

In the shadows twining 

[48] 



Present speech is past reflection; 
Nodding, prate, prate. 

Sleep ever, ever. 

Far thy brand is burning 

O'er the stream of darkest flowing, 

Sleep, ever, ever; 

To the night returning, 

Painless, dreamless is thy going; 

Sleep, forever sleep. 



[49 



IN THE WILDERNESS 

Within thy cheek the faintest rose reborn: 
Perhaps we shall divide the night and thine 
Be one part and the other mine, or call 
Across the wasteland where the torrents fall 
In foaming resonance o'er the dark incline. 

My part thy trust, my trust thy bending low 
To measure evening as the waters go 
Dreaming into the snowwhite breast of morn; 
Thy part to sleep, my part 1k) watch thee so! 



[50 



REDEMPTION 

I came, last night, so close to death, 
That, rising to the last request 
I forced his jaws apart and gazed, 
Twixt fang and fang, twixt opiate breath 
And sleep, into the rose-pink throat. 
'I sail the far ways of the sea,'* 
I cried, and swooned upon his breast. 

The fancied hours whirled about 
Like sunUght dancing in the wane 
Till soon, with senses more amazed 
Than true, the spirit wandered out 
Into the past. I heard the note 
Of whippoorwill in the apple tree 
And woke to find your hand in mine. 

[51] 



I CANNOT HIDE YOU 

I cannot hide you in my heart 
Because my eyes disclose 
Through distant gazing, or a sudden start 
Of light, yourself: Away my secret goes! 

I cannot screen you in a mind 

That dreams the days, between 

Our meeting, dreams, and seeks in vain to find 

Repose therein, and tears away the screen. 

I come before the drowsy moon 

Awakes in the purple sky. 

And we shall know the eternal secret soon 

Of dusk and love and summer, — you and I. 



[52] 



Thus I can hide you, in my arms, 

Thus witch the pain away 

Till dawn comes stealing in across the farms 

And life rejoices in a golden day. 



[63] 



TURN TO MY ARMS 

Turn to the east, and turn to the west, 
Turn to the south and the north, and then 
Smihng at sorrow and seeking afar, 
Turn to my arms again. 

The gleam in your eyes is the beacon of fame. 

That burns to an endless goal 

From mountain to mountain across the years 

Till desire dies in a valley of tears, 

Till the red fades out of the beacon flame 

And love fades out of the soul. 

Rustle of dead leaves, groan of bough 
Tossing to no avail 
Under the turquoise winter sky 
Jewelled and distant and cold and high. 
[54] 



Your strength would follow the tempest now 
And rustle dead things and fail. 

Turn to the wisdom of other days, 
Question the seekers that wandered in vain, 
Think of the love you will find at my heart 
And turn to my arms again. 



[55] 



I SENT HER FORTH 

I sent her forth, 

For men spurn most the things they love the best, 

And, bUnding vision to her higher worth, 

I cast her out to battle with the rest 

That snarl and surge around law's prudent door. 

She comes no more. 

She cannot win. 

No soul of flesh won any battle yet, 

That blustered out to tournament with sin. 

Always they come and plead that we forget. 

With lowered eyes and cheeks that flame and burn 

She will return. 

Mine is the shame. 

For I have lost the blessing of a heart 
[561 



That beat for me, that I might hold the name 
Of master — from some distant dream I start 
And in the darkness struggle to define 
Two lips at mine. 



[57] 



UNBIND THY HAIR 

Unfold the beauty of a whispering night, 

Sweep magically over me again 

The restless sable robe that with a flight 

Of stars floods all my soul. Oh, let me wake. 

Casting into the torrent of the rain 

The dreams I dream, forever, and partake. 

Of love long lost, long hidden under pain. 

Oh drench me in a shower of the dark 

And drown me in a whirlpool of despair. 

But save me from the relentless hours that mark 

The grains of sand swift slipping from the cup. 

When all that quivers in the cup is care. 

Oh fill the olden, golden goblet up 

With misty night, mine own — unbind thy hair! 

[58] 



GOOD BYE 

Whisper thy secret, love, 
Time will not stay, 
Hold me yet closer, love, 
Just for today. 

Long will thy paradise 
Fade in dispair, 
Founded on structure, love 
Frailer than air. 

Vast is the ocean, love, 
Silent and blue, 
Vast thine emotion, love, 
Deeper and true. 



[59] 



Find me tomorrow, love, 
Dead on the plain, 
Broken with sorrow, love, 
Striven in vain. 

Stars and a wilderness, 
Light that has flown, 
Life has forgotten, love. 
We are alone. 



[601 



THE LAST MORNING 

I seat myself upon a crystal throne, 
I swathe my temples in a golden band 
And smile as through the arras, softly blown, 
Sweeps the wide beauty of the sunlit land. 

Oh God, why hast Thou made the world so sweet; 
Oh barren heart what hast thou left to give, 
That like the poppy blushing in the wheat 
Thou findest joy in loneliness to live? 

Long have I sought as doth a feeble spark 
Borne on the night wind cast its light of pain; 
I will no longer juggle with the dark. 
Soul of my soul I come to thee again! 



[61 



REGRET 

I never knew the summer till it passed, 
I never knew the sunhght till it fled, 
I never knew the day but with the last 
Bright star of eve to comfort me instead. 

Oft when the tide stood hesitant and still 

And when I laughed and dreamed it was mine own 

It drew its waters to a sterner will 

And left me wondering on the beach alone. 

Now thou art gone the veil is flung apart, 
Now thou art gone! but in my soul there lies 
The wind of yesterday, close to my heart 
Low whispering, and the dark sea of thine eyes. 



[62] 



CRY 

Thou wert so fair that night I thought not death 
But sleep possessed thee; moonbeams played as breath 
Over thy lips that wronged love fancied red : 
Then closer, closer to my heart I pressed thee, 
Scornful of life that marked thy spirit dead. 

They say I crept like craven from the room 
And ran wild-shrieking through the night, as doom 
Swept low the feeble structures of a mind: 
But in my soul I heard thine accents speaking, 
Speaking like dead rose to the autumn wind. 



[63] 



SCARLET WIFE 

How canst thou breathe so sweet a sleep 

The while, 

How can thy cheeks glow with a tender red, 

Thy breast so even rise and fall 

When wild my heart is into swiftness fled, 

My temples throbbing to the trumpet call 

Of madness knocking loudly at my head: 

How canst thou breathe so sweet a sleep 

And smile? 



[64] 



CONSOLATION 

Whisper to me — they called me fool, wild, madman; 

Charlatans they, who mocked in symmetry 

Of heartless ignorance; chaffed in weight of chaff; 

Laughed in their own fool-laughter, whilst I sought 

By every vestige, every living clue, 

To know the truth e'er life had sped away. 

Whisper to me — I know thine anguish well; 
Broken, alone and helpless, on and on 
I struggled : on and on, and nowhere. Bonds 
That life had riveted to me clinked, as death 
Scattered the lights of knowledge in the dust: 
Teeth of* a dragon ne'er to reawake. 

And men will strive as I have striven, ever, 
Die as I died, wasted, mind and Hmb; 

[65] 



For, fearing we might understand herself, 
Life has turned torturess: given sight enough 
That we must see, as tottering into dark, 
Each individual Hfe; ourselves and all we love. 

Move not away, but place thy gentle lips 
On the white stone that marks a ruined end. 
Thus I receive thy blessing, and thou mine: 
Pass on, we shall not meet again, my friend. 



[66 



THE TALE OF THE GREY WOLF 

1 

Boldly I spoke, and trembled at the words, 
"For you will tell me ere the night departing 
Steal thee away a dream before the morn. 
Come ope those ghstening jaws wherein the fangs 
Give back the livid tincture of the moon! 
Com"e move that tongue more wont within the race 
To loll and drip, than in the subtleties 
Of speech to spin the intricate to fashion! 
I know thee well, grey wolf: a single sweep 
And this sharp blade will tell if red thy blood 
Or green. Speak! for I tarry not. The way 
Is long, afar the lamp is hung above 
The darkened lintel of the tavern door: 
There shall thy tale be told, and maid and master 
[67] 



Wonder at me for that I feared thee not: 
There shall thy tale be told or else the spit 
Turned by the potboy o'er the roaring blaze, 
Hiss with the last faint quiverings of thy heart. " 

As first I spoke, quite unafraid he looked 
Not at my lips as men do; but my eyes 
Gauged the intent for him. Then slow he turned 
And on the moon fixed his intensive gaze. 
Long puzzling at its bright placidity. 

Slow up he rose, and yawned and stretched his legs, 
Then hke the wind fled out among the pines 
Where endless lay the darkened avenues 
Of night; and I was after him alone. 

Silent I sped, and swifter than the hound. 
Silent away and truer to the trail, 
Guided by instinct. One by one the trees 
Told out the varied swingings of my sword 
That smote their sturdy sides and rang away. 
Now came the moon perhaps, or now was lost 
[68] 



Where monstrous boughs in monstrous shadows hung, 
Frighting the soul, but yet the heart within 
Beat to the maddening fervor of the hunt 
And I must on behind the fleeing thing. 

At last I fell : a heavy, twisted root, 

Sprung from the earth as some loud-thundering wind 

Beat low the noble posture of the trunk. 

Quick held, then flung me headlong to the ground. 

A growling rush, a shadow overhead. 
The snap of empty jaws; and then a long 
Low snarl of pain. So had the grey wolf leapt, 
So leapt, then fled like coward where the trail 
Descended. 

Trembling I stood and down my face 
The blood streamed copiously; each gasping breath 
Discovered pains new-seated in my bosom: 
Onward I strove, half knowing where I went. 



[69 



II 

High risen, like the river's ghost to flow 
Where ages past the stronger river went, 
Soft and uncertain in its fashioning 
The moonlight played upon the canyon mist. 
Thrice down the echoing incline I hurled 
The resonant defiance of a hate. 

"Who calls?'' a woman's voice, and strangely rich 
And clear, "Who calls the grey wolf from the heights?' 
Perhaps the tale, though pledged above the glass, 
Perhaps, though told in partial drunkenness, 
Were true I "Come, stranger, nor in rage descend, 
Nor fear. " I felt a sapling quiver now, 
Under my hand: My eyes in dizziness 
Revolved the world about me; moon and stars 
Went swimming down amid the senseless void 
And high above, between the glowering walls 
The river mist went creeping on and on. 

Now down the hill I stumbled, breathing slow. 
While heart and brain beat wild in one accord: 
[70] 



'I come, " I cried, "Though troubled be the way 
I come, I come; thy voice Hke silken thread 
Leads me afar through interwoven glades, 
Yet nearer, nearer, downward to thy feet. " 

Alone she knelt, and o'er a swirling pool, 

Far in mid-river, dipped a goblet low. 

Then I like a fountain from the sylvan sward. 

Enrobed in silk, ensilvered by the moon 

She rose, and saw me, smiling. Through the stream. 

As comes a moonbeam through the night, she came, 

Bearing the goblet liigh above her head. 

Before a rock encroaching on the way, 
A rock of awful massiveness and strength. 
Rising, a dark head in the vast ravine, 

We stood. Then of the goblet's potion drank I 
Deeply, and cried to her that stood beside 
To bid and I would do whate'er she willed. 
No task it seemed — as I would lift a hand 
Today and wonder not that it obeyed. 
[71] 



So did I heave the boulder from its sheath 

Of crumbling rock and stubborn mountain brush 

And cast it crashing downward through the night. 

'Behold," she said, and as I turned from harking 
Unto the fall of that which I had thrown, 
A Ught of gold, in magic soft and low 
Enthralled me. 

On the threshold of a cave 
The grey wolf, bristling, bared his fangs and snarled : 
But oh, beyond, a hideous spectre sat, 
A frightful skeleton that hved and grinned 
In mockery of the gold, mosaic walls. 

Then stealthily from out a glittering heap, 
Two coins it plucked and held them to the light, 
Clacking its knees and swaying to and fro. 
Aloud I shrieked for there before my eyes 
The coins turned human faces; one that smiled 
And one that wept, in likeness of my own; 
Then back to the table fell they and were coins. 
[72 1 



'This," said the maid, ''the grey wolf's secret is; 
And this is God's" — three kisses on my lips, 
Three kisses like the ocean's kiss in May — 
And with the third I swooned into the dawn. 



[73] 



THE RETURN 

I 

'Why are the whistles booming so, 
Why is the hum of the turbines low? 
Is it land? What land? Where's France? Where's Franc 
And Joe, my bunkey, where is Joe? 
He would not leave me for the sight 
Of land. I asked for him last night: 
Your face it says you do not know. 
Oh God, it's true, he's dead. Dance, dance 
Ye lights and shrapnel, ye that kill 
And put to sleep, nor maim the sense 
As that vile lotus-breath : — Intense 
But sweet, insidious — Yes, I will be still!" 



[74] 



II 

Who are these people by my bed? 

Yes, I know you — you're mother — dead, 

I thought — oh no, not you, — sometimes 

I think I've jugglers in my head. 

It's Joe that's gone — in a flash of light. 

Lost as a firefly in the night. 

And I've a living death instead. 

Joe, that was luck! 

Your face, and chimes, 
And orange blossoms! till it seems 
You are the bride I knew, my Ruth, 
I wish to call this vision truth; 
Oh, say I'm dreaming life, not living dreams!' 



[751 



Ill 

"Each night, my love, you praj'^ed and wept, 
Each night caressed me as I slept. 
And stole back to your single bed. 
While I waxed stronger, grew adept 
At hnking thoughts together late 
Into darkness — but you could not wait — 
Last night in the joy of strength I crept 
To your room — and saw — and would have fled 
But for the flame in my veins. I fell, 
Like the wreck I was, in the sombre hall, 
You found me when you heard the fall. 
The dead return to life to find earth hell! " 



76 



IV 
[ speed to France from whence I came. 
1 girl of the wheat fields to my name 
Uone, if I should not return, 
5Wore an eternal truth — the same 
i^'our false Ups whispered a year ago. 
)h yes, in health and strength and flow 
)f wealth and friends you wish the blame 
?o rest on me — Why do they burn, 
^hose crimson cheeks? Why do your eyes 
^ear looking into mine, the true? 
?he love I had was all for you, 
Me his love now who perjured paradise." 



77 



THE MOON ON THE PALISADES 
I 

I follow the moon to the Palisades 

Where the dead brush blows on the rocky walls, 

And streams are frozen in white cascades 

And torrents steal to the silent falls 

Like Ghosts, on the PaUsades. 

II 

I follow the moon to the PaUsades 
For the call of my heart is to be alone. 
The forest merges to darkness and fades 
In the shadows hiding the steeps of stone 
From the moon, on the Palisades. 



78 



Ill 

I follow the moon to the Palisades 

To merge myself and my secret so, 

Till the morning comes and the dark evades 

The cliff to hide in the caves below 

At dawn, on the Palisades. 

IV 

I follow the moon to the Palisades 
Where solitude whispers that Death is free 
From pain; that a fantasy soul degrades 
The living to sense servility. 
There is peace on the PaHsades. 

V 

I follow the moon to the Palisades 

And a spirit rises over the waste 

As battle-smoke over the gleaming blades 

And I know that the spirit of death is chaste 

As the moon on the PaHsades. 

[79] 



SONG OF A SUICIDE 

Last golden eve I watched a quivering star 
Fall the long firmament to the hush of space, 
Last eve I rose against the giant face 
Of night and cried my sorrowing afar. 

Last golden eve I knelt upon the strand, 
I tasted of the brine and laughed and wept. 
I felt the pulse of Time and thought it slept 
And held it close and found it was the sand. 

Last golden eve my memories of thee 

Like startled bird into the dark I flung 

And watched them flutter where the moonbeams hung: 

Last golden eve I stumbled in the sea 



[80] 



THE WEEPER 

He who so stood beneath the willow's shade, 

Thigh-deep in the river, and with brimming eyes 

Noted the constant coursing of the tide 

That flowed, now swift, now slow, yet ever flowed; 

There seeing the hidden truth, life's parallel, 

Time changeth all, the river never is 

The selfsame river — 3^et no more he saw — 

Found consolation in a woman's arms; 

Drowned his poor sorrow in a vinous glow. 

Oh now, long years forgotten, he is gone, 
And others dwell as he dwelt, through the land. 
The crystal waters sweep the same bright banks. 
The wind-song in the willows still is young. 
Life though it changeth must forever be 

[81] 



The same — Life unto death, yet ere it dies 

New Hfe bursts forth from out the strength of youth — 

As long as sun and earth shall sway as now 

Death cannot conquer — change is only change. 

Oh fool, why must thou ever seek divinity beyond. 
Knowing each Ufe must yield, then yield itself at last. 
And, fearing, bUnd thyself unto the truth of all : 
Thine inamortaUty takes birth with every child? 



[82] 



AT DUSK 

I fear the soft glow of the evening lamps 
And the imperceptible passing of things 
From truth of vision to shadow being, 
The sycophant presence of him that clinge 
To the coming of darkness in sable Vvdngs. 
I fear the remorseless terror that stamps 
The pallor death to the brow of seeing, 
That leaves the clay in its strange desire 
Hearts of jet in souls of fire. 

Out of the even the mists of Hght 
Flung in a suppliant moon-appeal 
Stream to exhaustion in void of ebon, 
Sanctioning gifts of the dust that steal 
Eternal being from earthen seal. 

[83] 



And bodies fall from the spirit's flight 
For spiderous silence to fashion a web on. 
Torn from the earth and the surge of the main 
We sink to the bosom of earth again. 



84] 



EVENING 

I will not know, for yet I think thee near 
In this last silence : o'er my brow thy hand 
Steals like a summer wind; the chaUeed ear 
Holds whisperings from a ne'er forgotten land. 
How dark my soul, and like an endless wood 
That knows no light upon its shadowy face 
Save when the moon comes with her silver flood 
To sweep foreboding terror from the place. 
I feel thy lily breath upon my hair, 
I struggle up, I raise my lips to bless 
Thy presence, but the void, unhallowed air 
Cries down upon me in my loneHness: 
Then with a fluttering heart and with the fright 
Of death, I ope mine eyes and gaze into the night! 

[85] 



THE END OF THE TRAIL 

Hand upon brow, and in fearlessness 

Scanning the heavens, 

Conscious and proud of the youth of him, 

Tall and stately and handsome. 

Bares he to sunset the sacred strength of his bosom; 

Prays in the hopefulness of a day of grace 

To the Great Spirit. 

Soft as the purr of the puma, 
Deep in the heart of the valley, 
Murmurs the bowstring. 

Slender and swift, 

Like to the hiss of the adder 

Whispers the arrow. 

[86] 



iilent the crest is, alone; and the darkness 

)'er the abysses 

Draws her keep mantle, relentless. 

)h, but Thy hand o'er a brow 

Vilder than death, where it rests on the rocks of the canyon 

lootheth unseen the last of a noble race: 

'^hou, the Great Spirit! 



[87] 



THE STORY OF THE JUDGE 

Tis bosomed deep in utmost secrecy, 

Fearful of nothing, for the seal is death: 

And I can laugh the whole world in the face, 

Humor its sorrows or cajole its cares, 

A favored child. Mayhap its brimming fold 

Will give a yearling for new sacrifice, 

Life for a hfe: most carefully will the noose 

Be played until some lamb, unwary, feed 

Within the precinct of the evidence 

And all is silent. 

Now the joyful blood 
Careers through my veins in orgiastic life! 
The dark clouds of remorse are trembling now 
Before the strength of this wild, wind-swept heaven 
And unlulled breezes singing of success. 
[88] 



I am no more a man, but tempered high, 
Sprung to an element through a blessed act; 
Sacred my path shall be o'er all the earth, 
Man must acknowledge me as strong of will, 
As pure of heart, and scatter roses low. 
Bowing to me, for I am innocent: 
Crime undiscovered is a guiltless crime! 

What ails thee, world? Though I be obdurate 

Yet am I not a fool. Thy pity knows 

The Hving, — cowering yonder, — but as judge 

I see a countenance unredeemable. 

Hush thy rude voices! Though 'twas done unseen. 

No man becomes a sinner till he sins, 

And then is more the sinner for his past. 

A wondrous chance has thrown into our hands 

The chain that links the doer with the deed. 

Each pulse that stirs within a murderer's heart 

Is venom bubbling through the well of life: 

Death is the sentence! 



[89] 



Now the court is still, 
Freed the long session of its loud unrest: 
Quiet, quiet speaks of the coming night. 
Yet would I hold thee, day, as love unfaithful. 
Knowing thy long departure, slow return, 
Yet read from thine eyes that all regret is vain; 
Oh stay with me, I fear the dark, oh stay! 
For with her own white fingers have I torn 
The lily breast of Truth: Oh stay with me! 

The risen moon is like a thread of gold. 
Virgin, as thou wert, and as soon to pass; 
Dim in its bending cup thy face is dreaming, 
Closed are thine eyes, and o'er a paUid brow 
The languid moonbeams wave thy molten hair. 

Speak to me, speak! Oh God, am I so low? 
So low! What cares the universe for me, 
A maddened fool who in the way of dreams 
Governed the living in the force of law, 
Masking his hideous self unwittingly! 

[90] 



A poison draught to end a poisoned life, 
And then I climb that vast stairway beyond, 
Upward and upward to eternity: 
Over the shadowy steps thy light will come, 
Whispering endless time, unbroken faith. 

Sail on forever till the night shall hide thee, 
Fled from a world whose cares are not thine own. 
Dream into darkness till the star beside thee 
Mourn his lost lover, in the sky alone! 



[91] 



MY FAITH 

I hear no call of bird, no drone of bee, 
I hear no murmur of the hastening stream, 
This is a barren waste that was the sea, 
Things that have been live now but in a dream. 

Long shadows hover in the dim midday, 
Spectres that leer at noon's low-flaming sun, 
Motionless sentinels of the dark that say, 
'Thy reign is o'er nor ours is yet begun." 

What is this Ufe so given, so returned. 
What is this soul so free to rise and soar, 
That when the flickering, paltry flame be burned 
Dies into vastness and is known no more? 



[92 



Forever the dawn may come, the cold of death 
Stills not my heart. Throughout the wandering sphere 
Life cannot be destroyed: a sun's last breath 
Means but the winter of a faltering year. 

What is must always be, the past yet live, 
For Time is but the measm-ement of today, 
Dies not the tree that swift its leaves must give, 
Spring blows reborn what autumn sweeps away. 

False rest, I know thee now; life ever takes 
From out the night the soul that would be free, 
Thou'rt but a sleep that morning re-awakes: 
Almighty GOD, there is no Death but Thee. 



193] 



AS I PRAY 

Two little drops of poison on the velvet throne 

That glisten in the dark lamp's ghostHness, 

Two little drops that fluttered from thy cup; 

And didst thou tremble so 

Or was it pain that far thy lips below 

Flung out the glass all shattered and alone. 

Wouldn't thou in death confess? 

Lies in thy palm half lifted up 

No plaintive line of sorrowing for me 

To still the burn of infidelity, 

Or are these drops to eyes of demon grown? 



[94] 



THE PESTILENCE 

I have come in the dark, I have come in the day, 
I have come in the dusk and the dawn, 
I have won the mad race with the ships on the sea, 
And none shall escape me and none shall be free, 
The pleading of age nor the boasting of youth, 
Nor the power of wisdom and brawn. 

No question is asked and no answer desired, 

If bidden to enter and ride 

Why the past is a fancy and only a gleam 

Through the rust of a sword that is swung in a dream, 

You speed a swift honeymoon out of the world 

And you travel with death as a bride. 

Oh, hate and aggression and falsehood and scorn 
Are crushed by the wheels as I go, 
[95] 



For the fear of the scourge that I hold in my hand, 
The terror that knows the resistless command 
Makes living the only distinction of hfe 
From the rest that Hes dead in the snow. 



[96] 



IN A GLASS OF RED WINE 

Droop low thine arms that hover o'er me now, 

In subtle, easy curve, like temple arch 

Mosiac hung and soft in the sunset spell. 

Bend down thy perfumed head, on lips that parch 

For a breath of unselfish love, and on my brow 

Rest thine, dark maid, nor heed the mosque-hour bell. 

Far north the paramour white winter lies. 

As false as one I loved. Luxuriate 

The rising sun flings diamonds to the snow, 

And she dwells in that land; yet passing the gate 

To our home some friend may turn away his eyes 

Where footsteps enter though they do not go. 

So fold me closer, hold me nearer, steal 
With thy great, limpid eyes forgotten flame 
[971 



From mine, let blind devotion call to those 
Who see naught else and bow till they be lame 
Let Allah speak what breast and bosom feel 
And limb on limb, and lips that meet and close. 



THE END 



[98] 



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